Dogs shot by deputies: Investigation ongoing, but no details released

[Silent_Bob]

http://www.pnj.com/article/20130807/NEWS08/130807015/Dogs-shot-by-deputies-Investigation-ongoing-no-details-released

Two deputies are on administrative duty and many questions are still unanswered three days after Escambia County sheriff's deputies reportedly entered a Warrington couple's home without a search warrant and shot the couple's two dogs, mortally wounding one.

The deputies went into the home of Travis Nicholas, 22, and Cristina Moses, 32, on Flynn Drive Sunday night in search of a suspect in an armed disturbance that occurred earlier on the same street.

Both Nicholas and Moses were cuffed in the incident but later released. Neither had been charged as of this afternoon.

"I don't know why it happened," an emotional Moses said Tuesday. "I feel like my child has died."

Today, the Sheriff's Office refused to provide additional details on what led deputies to enter the couple's home through the window, cuff them, and shoot their two dogs, except to say that an investigation into the incident is pending.

"There is both a criminal and an administrative investigation ongoing," Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Sena Maddison wrote in an e-mail today. "More details will be available pending the conclusion of both the criminal and administrative investigation. But not before that time."

A sheriff's report states that there is no video evidence of the incident, but the Sheriff's Office has declined to provide a reason.

A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Tuesday that the agency is not investigating the case at this point.

On Tuesday, the Sheriff's Office issued a release that deputies were in the area around 8:30 p.m. responding to an armed disturbance. A sheriff's office report said Wayde Morris, 22, got into an argument with his ex-girlfriend and her father, who live at another address on the street. Morris reportedly approached them with a bat and machete. 911 dispatch records show several calls made by neighbors around that time reporting a disturbance on the street and a man with a bat.

Morris was arrested by deputies on a charge of aggravated assault. However, according to the sheriff's report, several witnesses reported that an additional suspect in a gray tank top pointed a gun at the victims and threatened them. One witness reported the man's name as Travis.

In a 911 dispatch record from the same night and address, a man is heard telling the dispatcher: "This little punk down the road has got a gun pointed at me, my daughter and my roommate."

Nicholas denies making threats or owning a gun.

Deputies checked the perimeter of the couple's home and climbed through the window after finding an upside-down bucket with a footprint on it beneath the window, according the report. The deputies made several unsuccessful attempts to get someone in the home to open the door, according to the report.

But the couple, who said they were sleeping in their bedroom with a closed door at the time, did not hear anything until their dogs began barking at the sound of the deputies.

"I opened the door and there were six police officers pointing guns at me and flashlights, saying 'Show me your hands. Get on the ground,' " Moses said Tuesday.

The couple said six deputies entered their home, but it was only one officer whom they identified as Deputy Mikel Anthony Lee, who fired shots at their dogs.

Lee is listed on the sheriff's report as a reporting officer; however, Maddison declined to confirm if he was the deputy who fired the shots or give any further details about the deputy.

"More details will be available pending the conclusion of the internal investigation," she replied in an email.